USA loses to Argentina in Basketball

well, they fucking blew it, now they place greece for the bronze medal.

argentina played great though, Ginobili lite USA up the whole game.

maybe this is a wake up call, and in 4 years the "best" NBA players might get off their overpayed asses and step up to get the gold back.

i pick Argentina to win the gold.

No T-Mac, No Kobe, No KG and No Shaq = not a real Dream Team.

Just wondering, has Kobe Bryant ever played on a USA dream team before?

dream team has been pathetic and sloppy all summer

DashK said:

well, they fucking blew it, now they place greece for the bronze medal.

argentina played great though, Ginobili lite USA up the whole game.

maybe this is a wake up call, and in 4 years the "best" NBA players might get off their overpayed asses and step up to get the gold back.

i pick Argentina to win the gold.

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I knew that this was going to happan well I glad that they won I from Argentina

Vamos Argentina!!!! they should of just sent the Pistons...

even with Kobe, Shaq..etc. They could still be beat (ask the pistons). International competition level is steadily growing. The US has an embarrasing free throw percentage, which coaching can't save.

Meh, most of our better players are too materialistic to give a shit about something like the Olympics.

That came with a bit of surprise!

On the other semifinal, we Italy managed to win over Lituania, in a very intense match!

Well, let's hope for the gold!

ParryHor said:

even with Kobe, Shaq..etc. They could still be beat (ask the pistons). International competition level is steadily growing. The US has an embarrasing free throw percentage, which coaching can't save.

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the qualifying team WAS a real dream team, and flattened everyone, that team did have T-Mac, Kidd, Vince Carter etc.

Yeah sending the NBA champs is not a bad idea.

Meh, most of our better players are too materialistic to give a shit about something like the Olympics.

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That's the whole problem, everyone on the original team except AI and Duncan had some excuse on why they couldn't make the olympics. It's no longer appealing to win a gold, we've done it so many times, and most of them figured shit, it doesn't matter who they send from the NBA, we'll still win (hope this is a wake up call), I won't bother going, I wanna make the all star game next season and get that new shoe deal....

That's why you cannot blame any of the guys on this team, they must have had damn near 20 people turn down invitations before they got this current team, some of the guys are like the 4th choice! And all those rookies and 2nd year guys, they are the only ones who are still hungry to play, I mean shit, Emeka Okafor is on the team, and he has yet to play in the NBA.

If we have the best in the NBA on our olympic team, no one can touch us even in their dreams, as long as we send 3rd rate players we will either lose or have to get lucky to win.

if if if....US NBA players make good nike commercials though.

Here's what it is. American basketball is based on power and inside play. There is not that big of an emphasis on outside shooting because it is a "low percentage shot" Whereas international basketball is more team oriented and less superstar focused which is what NBA basketball is about. There is a bigger emhasis on outside shooting and free throw shooting in the international game which when you think of it is basic fundamentals. And the power game can only take you so far especially when they allow the zone defense in international play with all 5 defensive players clogging the paint.

mdog said:

No T-Mac, No Kobe, No KG and No Shaq = not a real Dream Team.

Just wondering, has Kobe Bryant ever played on a USA dream team before?

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Nope, Kobe has never played on a USA dream team before, he would've been on this team had it not been for the stupid court issues he is having

DashK said:

the qualifying team WAS a real dream team, and flattened everyone, that team did have T-Mac, Kidd, Vince Carter etc.

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DashK, the qualifying team of 2000 never had T-Mac, they had, J.Kidd, Vince Carter, Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Shareef-Abdur-Rahim, Allan Houston, Ray Allen, Tim Hardaway, Antonio Mcdyess, Vin Baker, Kevin Garnett, I wish they would have had T-Mac and Kobe though

mdog said:

No T-Mac, No Kobe, No KG and No Shaq = not a real Dream Team.

Just wondering, has Kobe Bryant ever played on a USA dream team before?

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Lebron James? AI? Tim Duncan? These are big time players for god's sake. Sorry, but there's no excuse for this. You think that these countries have their best? You know some people are injured. We don't have a bunch of turds out there, thank you very much.

Face it: Other countries are just getting very very good now. It's no longer an American only sport, and I'm glad. Now if only the US could get good at soccer... I mean really good. Man U good.

Spike

The BEAST3 said:

DashK, the qualifying team of 2000 never had T-Mac, they had, J.Kidd, Vince Carter, Gary Payton, Alonzo Mourning, Shareef-Abdur-Rahim, Allan Houston, Ray Allen, Tim Hardaway, Antonio Mcdyess, Vin Baker, Kevin Garnett, I wish they would have had T-Mac and Kobe though

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I can only imagine had this years dream team had T-Mac, Kobe and KG on the roster. Any one of those three are capable of taking over games when on the line. There would be nobody on any Worlds team to stop them.

W00T W00T

Go Italy go! Go Italy go!

Spike Spiegel said:

Lebron James? AI? Tim Duncan? These are big time players for god's sake. Sorry, but there's no excuse for this. You think that these countries have their best? You know some people are injured. We don't have a bunch of turds out there, thank you very much.

Face it: Other countries are just getting very very good now. It's no longer an American only sport, and I'm glad. Now if only the US could get good at soccer... I mean really good. Man U good.

Spike

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Never a truer word thanks for the new sig

Spike Spiegel said:

Lebron James? AI? Tim Duncan? These are big time players for god's sake. Sorry, but there's no excuse for this. You think that these countries have their best? You know some people are injured. We don't have a bunch of turds out there, thank you very much.

Face it: Other countries are just getting very very good now. It's no longer an American only sport, and I'm glad. Now if only the US could get good at soccer... I mean really good. Man U good.

Spike

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Yes, but USA is going up against the World countries top athletes, the best of their best. Now would you say this Dream Team was the best the United States has to offer....Hell No!!!! Don't get me wrong but those players you mentioned are superstars but this dream team still wasn't at full strength. I'm talking Kidd, T-Mac, Kobe, Shaq, KG, the Franchise and even Phil Jackson as the Head Coach(Shaq would have accepted the offer had Phil been the coach). Now with a starting line up of:

C Shaquille O' Neal 7'1
PF Tim Duncan 7'0
SF Kevin Garnett 7'0
SG T-Mac 6'8
PG Kobe Bryant 6'7

Bench

Kidd,J.O'Neal,B.Wallace,Franchise,Lebron,A.I,R.Allen,Anthony,L.Walton

Even with Kobe playing the point, Phil being the coach...this Dream Team would simply demolish anything in sight.

US Basketball team = bunch of losers. They proved it time and time again on the court.

Those who refuse to represent their country are even bigger losers.

Here's are the main problems of the team:

No outside shooters
Winning the NBA Finals is more important than winning Olympic Gold
Great players turned down
Playing streetball instead of real basketball (Thanks alot, And1!!)
International teams have improved within 12 years

Granted if we had, T.Mac, Kevin Garnett, Shaq, Ben Wallace, R. Wallace as starters and had Kidd, L. James, A. Jameson, P. Pierce, and J. O'neil on the bench, we would be unstoppable! Magic said that this should be easy but they are making this too hard. Oh well... maybe in four more years.

mdog said:

Yes, but USA is going up against the World countries top athletes, the best of their best. Now would you say this Dream Team was the best the United States has to offer....Hell No!!!! Don't get me wrong but those players you mentioned are superstars but this dream team still wasn't at full strength. I'm talking Kidd, T-Mac, Kobe, Shaq, KG, the Franchise and even Phil Jackson as the Head Coach(Shaq would have accepted the offer had Phil been the coach). Now with a starting line up of:

C Shaquille O' Neal 7'1
PF Tim Duncan 7'0
SF Kevin Garnett 7'0
SG T-Mac 6'8
PG Kobe Bryant 6'7

Bench

Kidd,J.O'Neal,B.Wallace,Franchise,Lebron,A.I,R.Allen,Anthony,L.Walton

Even with Kobe playing the point, Phil being the coach...this Dream Team would simply demolish anything in sight.

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maybe you're right maybe you're wrong. what you're definetly wrong about is that each country sends the best of the best. Its like any other sports tournament, you get what the coach thinks is good and what the players can give. To say that the US was not interested in winning a gold is BS - I don't think so.

There was very little team structure - scant amount of team spirit. Some individual play was awesome, but it didn't work. Soccer is our main game - I know how you guys feel, I've felt it many times watching my country play soccer. But there are many factors to these things, not just - oh they didn't feel like winning a gold, or this and that player wheren't in. You guys got played over and over in this tournament. face it. wake up and lead the way. just coz you're the US of fucking A doesn't mean the sun shines out of your arses. you have to work. I know there is alot of talent over there - enough to crush any team. But sport is an enterprise over there, so its greed that leads the way. In a country like mine, people that do well in sports (at least whilst they still live here) do so for the love of it, or to get out of poverty (though not necesarily to become rich).
Ginobili deserves the credit he's due. we out played you big time, danced circles around you at times. yes it didn't help that your team played (very) badly, but we cracked it. and yes there is more team based here - but Ginobili was able to play his own match.

DevilRedeemed said:

maybe you're right maybe you're wrong. what you're definetly wrong about is that each country sends the best of the best. Its like any other sports tournament, you get what the coach thinks is good and what the players can give. To say that the US was not interested in winning a gold is BS - I don't think so.

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Its exactly what I just said...USA going against the other countries best of the best. And I never said that the US was not interested in winning the gold, where ever did that come from. I clearly said that they were not at FULL STRENGTH.

mdog said:

Its exactly what I just said...USA going against the other countries best of the best. And I never said that the US was not interested in winning the gold, where ever did that come from. I clearly said that they were not at FULL STRENGTH.

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no, I just resumed a number of POVs into one. and I said that the other countries aren't necesarily putting together teams containing the best of the best from their countries. anyway olympic bball is very different from league play.

Unfortunately, there is no mention of Mexicos team.

bah, come beijing, yao and other chinese players r goin to have it there way.

btw, have u notice all the booin and whistlin at these games against any americans winning gold medals? wtf is that? those people are the true losers of these games right there.